News - December 2025 RSS Feed

As much as we anticipate the coming of Christmas, in an instant it seems like it has passed. One of the beauties of our Catholic faith is that as a season, Christmas, what one calls Christmastide, continues for a few more weeks. As we have previously mentioned, the calendar of the old Latin Mass continued Christmas for forty days, as we do Easter, meaning it ends on February 2.

The shopping is done, the presents are wrapped, plans for dinner and the other celebrations are in place and all is ready for the festive season. At St. Benedict parish we are all grateful for the faith-filled enthusiasm that each member, each family brings to our community. Our shared commitment to handing-on the faith, celebrating the Sacraments, and our care for the disenfranchised, the marginalized, and the suffering members of our community is a great witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our Advent Season brought us some good opportunities to prepare ourselves for the coming Christmas celebrations. We are grateful for the dedication and hard work of our broader ministerial team

As Advent is a time of spiritual preparation for the coming Christmas Season, the Sacrament of Penance (or Confession or Reconciliation if you will) should be a part of our journey. This Sunday we are offering Confessions beginning at 3pm. With multiple priests in attendance, it is a good opportunity for the entire family to come together. There is no accompanying prayer service and the lines do move fairly quickly.

This weekend we are lighting the parish Christmas Tree and it is certainly beginning to look like Christmas. I want to acknowledge and thank the recently established Father’s Club, formed under Rich Romero (Director of Buildings and Grounds) who volunteer to assist with various projects around the property. This not only eases some of the burden on the maintenance staff, but also helps us to not have to always hire an outside contractor to do some of the jobs. They have been busy getting us ready for Christmas.